If we were picking a journalism all-star team, it would certainly be a different lineup. Or a bigger lineup. In some sense, a poor newspaper in a great market represents a greater opportunity, because we know how to improve a newspaper.

Journalism seems to have recovered its reason for being.

I knew that a historian (or a journalist, or anyone telling a story) was forced to choose, out of an infinite number of facts, what to present, what to omit. And that decision inevitably would reflect, whether consciously or not, the interests of the historian.

We're going to be a bit bigger as a corporate structure, although hopefully not that much. It won't be an upside-down kind of thing, but (human resources) will be responsible for 20,000 people, a little difference in scale.

At this point, we're talking to everybody who wants to talk and we're trying to ascertain who is serious and who is not. We will say that we are impressed and pleased with the level of interest from bidders whether they are interested in buying one or all of them.

We plan to be a partner. We plan to participate.